Greatest season ever? Djokovic outlasts Nadal in U.S. Open epic
One of the greatest seasons in tennis history was capped by one of the sport's most brilliantly played finals. Novak Djokovic won his third Grand Slam of 2011, holding off a late charge from defending champion Rafael Nadal to win a superb four-set marathon at the U.S. Open, 6-2, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1.
The score line may not look like much but Monday's final was a closely contested match that featured jaw-dropping rallies, remarkable defense and a 17-minute game that may have swung the balance of modern tennis history.
The Game, as it's bound to be called, will go down in the annals of U.S. Open lore. A 17-minute, eight-deuce affair early in the second set gave Djokovic an early edge from which it looked like Nadal may not recover.
Djokovic has defeated Nadal six straight times this season, a streak which will lead to assertions that Djokovic is in his opponent's head. Nadal doesn't help matters with his introspective press conferences in which he wonders the same thing. But Djokovic isn't in Nadal's head. If he was, Nadal wouldn't have fought so hard in that third set to come back. He wouldn't have believed he could win the match. A broken man would have waived the white flag in the third, accepted his runner-up trophy and gone back home.
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